Honda India to Build Cars for South Asia and South African Markets

Japanese car maker's Indian subsidiary Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) is planning to use Indian facilities to manufacture cars for South Asian countries. The cars will be exported to Africa and some other global markets as well. Unlike Honda's trend of locally manufacturing its products in the major markets, it will roll out its flagship sedan and other cars to South Afria, which will be built in India.

Speaking to ET, a sr. executive of the company said that they wish to make India a hub of manufacturing due to India's cost competitiveness and to use the spare capacity. Indian manufacturing operations will emerge as an alternative to Thailand, that exports various cars to Africa and other markets. "We keep exploring new markets for growth opportunities. We currently export some models to the neighboring markets like Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. However, we do not have anything specific to share at this moment," a company spokeswomen said.

Indian automotive market currently exports over 5-lakh cars every year, where Hyundai, Maruti Suzuki and Nissan Motors are the leading players in exports, Honda only sells approximately 100 cars to the neighbouring countries including Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Sources further said that the Brio sedan, which is expected to hit the Indian shores in next few months would also be exported from India. "The new sedan would ideally be customized for the Indian market, but gradually also become a major part of the export strategy," said a sr. Honda executive

Deepesh Rathore MD-India, IHS Global Insight, a well know consultancy "Honda already has huge capacity to make cars in India. This overcapacity has riding issues of piled up inventory, which can surely be addressed through exports. Honda is producing more than it can sell in the domestic market and exports would be a welcome step as it attempts to turnaround the India operations,"

Courtesy: Economic Times

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